Trump Was Just Kidding About Using the Nuclear Codes to Blow Up Dodd-Frank

During his campaign and over the last several days, Donald Trump has made a lot of bold claims. That he's going to build a wall to keep Mexicans out of the country. That he's going to deport a huge number of immigrants. That he's going to blow Dodd-Frank to smithereens. It's unclear if he plans to follow through on the first two pledges, but on the matter of the financial regulation bill, enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis? Apparently he was just messing with us! The Wall Street Journal is reporting that rather than a full-scale gut job, Team Trump instead plans to make some light tweaks to the thing.

Mr. Trump’s team is focused on rescinding or scaling back the individual provisions Republicans find most objectionable, such as the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s authority to designate large non-banks systemically important and thus subject to tougher regulation from the Federal Reserve. These people said another priority is overhauling a separate section of Dodd-Frank, Title II, that gives financial regulators the authority to take over a failing financial firm and liquidate it—an alternative to the government’s 2008 strategy of bailing out banks by handing them equity capital.

And according to the Journal's sources, Trump actually has nice things to say about Dodd-Frank's "efforts to boost the transparency of credit-rating firms and regulate derivatives products." In other regulatory but probably less conciliatory news, Elizabeth Warren is going to need to don the brass knuckles she keeps in her top drawer and prepare to do battle Ultimate Fighting-style if she wants to keep Trump's mitts off the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to Bloomberg.

Trump could sign legislation proposed by Republicans that would put the agency under Congress’s thumb. Lawmakers could also overturn specific CFPB regulations, including one loathed by the industry that made it easier for consumers to sue their banks. Most importantly, Republicans are poised to get the chance to replace the CFPB’s aggressive leader, Democrat Richard Cordray. His term is up in 2018, but Trump may be able to replace him even sooner if a recent court ruling is upheld that gives the president more leeway to oust the agency’s director.